Fear of Thunder

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Tidus: Are you that scared? Rikku: Mm-hm. When I was little, a fiend attacked me while I was swimming at the beach. My brother tried to beat it back with a spell. (squeaks at another thunderclap) But he missed and hit me instead! It was a Thunder spell — "Bzzzzzzt!" Tidus: Ouch! Rikku: I've been scared of lightning ever since.

Your otherwise capable or serious character has an inordinate fear, not of giant sauropods, but of thunderstorms. This is a primal, almost childish fear that surprises other characters, although it's not always played for laughs. The actual name of this fear is "Brontophobia" or "Astraphobia." note The former suggests a fear of late-Jurassic Apatosaurine dinosaurs while the latter, a horror of affordable German family cars. It also happens to animals, especially dogs.

Note that fear of thunder is often treated as silly; after all, it's just a lot of noise. Fear of lightning, on the other hand, is absolutely justified — and confirmed by Snopes — but by the same token, since you hear the thunder after the lightning, it's good news: it means you weren't hit. Nothing Is Scarier may also come into play; as Alfred Hitchcock once said: "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.".

Examples:

Ciel Phantomhive of Black Butler mentions that, as a smaller child, he would get scared during thunderstorms, and would always go sleep with his parents. It's not clear, however, whether he ever outgrew the fear or is simply hiding his fear to act more mature.

In Uchouten Kazoku the Shimogamo matriarch is notably afraid of thunderstorms.

Chiyo-chan is a genius, ridiculously cute, and scared of lightning. In her defense, she's still only 10 years old.

In the manga, one of the Yonkoma shows that Sakaki is also scared of lightning.

Osaka is scared of lightning too, but she enjoys it. She even peers closer to the window. If this doesn't make sense, remember, this isOsaka we're talking about.

After having to endure a rather traumatic car ride with Yukari-sensei, Chiyo-chan is asked by Tomo if she thinks lightning or cars are worse during a particularly bad storm, and promptly suffers a BSOD.

Elie, from Rave Master, is a young female Badass Normal who dual wields two high-caliber guns (with highly explosive ammunition) and other dangerous ballistic instruments, faces demonic threats with relative frequency, and carries the world's most powerful magic inside her... and is so scared of storms a little zap is enough to send her to the ground quivering and unable to act. In her defense this fear comes from the trauma of being almost killed by extremely powerful lightning spells — twice.

Usagi Tsukino in Sailor Moon had a touch of this throughout the series, though it was particularly played up during an episode of Sailor Moon R in which Chibi-Usa was revealed to have the same fear. The villains used a Monster of the Week to create a massive thunderstorm as a way to ferret out Chibi-Usa, which works when the poor girl becomes so frightened she loses control of her powers after being left alone during the storm. Usagi spends the whole episode freaking out as well, and when she fights the monster later, she's particularly upset with it for ruining her day. This trope is also one of many clues (as if youreallyneeded them) that Chibi-Usa was Usagi's Kid from the Future.

In the Detectives Koshien arc from Detective Conan, a storm starts when the four teenaged detectives are gathered in an old mansion and one of them has actually been killed. Once thunder breaks in, Natsuki "Detective of the South" Koshimizu screams in utter horror and collapses to the floor. She was actually faking it, to distract the others while she was searching for a piece of lost evidence that could potentially reveal her as the Sympathetic Murderer of the arc - and the one who killed her fellow sleuth. Conan and Heiji weren't fooled by her act, though, and later use it to unmask her.

In the first episode of Stitch!, Yuuna is shown to be afraid of lightning.

Nano is shown to be afraid of lightning in Nichijou when she walks her Professor to the bathroom during a storm. The Professor herself is also afraid of lightning; considering the former is a robot and the latter only eight years old, it's not surprising at all.

Aria from Aria the Scarlet Ammo is quite afraid of thunder. This presents problems in missions where it's raining.

Ramba Ral's Zeon crew are completely freaked out when they land on Earth in the middle of a thunderstorm, actually thinking that it's some sort of Federation defense system until Ral corrects them and explains what's going on. A Justified Trope: most of them were born and live in massive, climate-controlled colony stations, and have never been to Earth before.

Meanwhile, the children on White Base, who have also lived in space for most or all of their lives, think it's a Zeon weapon.

Pantherlily, Gajeel's Exceed companion post-Edolas Arc, is shown to have an inordinate fear of thunderstorms, although it is unknown whether his fear is only present when he is small, or also present in his much larger and stronger Battle Mode.

In a Silver Age Supergirl story, Supergirl dreams a What If? in which she was raised by Superman's parents. In one part of the dreams, she wrecks the Kents' house during a thunderstorm.

One Archie Comics strip had one thunderclap scare Veronica into the awaiting arms of Archie, exploiting this trope. Unfortunately for him, her father saw all that and told the both of them many tales and fables about thunder and lightning to lessen her fear of those elements and lessen her time in Archie's arms. It worked.

Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines had "Spy In The Sky" (Fun-In #3, August 1970), in which Muttley is sent to find out Yankee Doodle Pigeon's weakness. Yankee Doodle plants a fake fear for Muttley to take back—a fear of thunder and lightning. Dick Dastardly has the squadron push thunderclouds towards Yankee Doodle, but it backfires. He's wearing lightning rods atop his flying helmet and the lightning bolts strike the Vulture Squadron. Cue Dastardly relieving Muttley of his medals.

Kyoshi Rising; Kyoshi expresses an extreme dislike for storms, citing that she used to run crying to her parents when she was little whenever a storm rolled in. Some have speculated this is due to the previous Avatar, Kuruk, dying while trying to quell an unusually strong storm, and the memory carried over to Kyoshi.

Film

In the film Mongol about the early life of Genghis Khan (called Temujin here), it is explained that Thunderstorms are a cultural fear of the Mongolian people. Of course, Temujin himself is the first one to overcome this fear.

Apparently all of the Von Trapp children in The Sound of Music are deadly afraid of thunderstorms, as shown in the scene leading up to "My Favorite Things".

In the film Top Hat, a clap of thunder momentarily causes Ginger Rogers to drop her haughty manner towards Fred Astaire.

One of the many phobias/unreasoning terrors that the heroine experiences in Hitchock's Marnie.

In Arashi no Yoru ni, one of the things that brings Gabu and Mei together when the first meet in a barn on a stormy night is their shared fear of thunder.

In The Avengers Loki becomes uneasy when a storm starts, prompting this exchange:

In Ted, Ted and John have this. Not only that, but they also have a "thunder song" about it:

Ted and John: When you hear the sound of thunder, don't you get too scared/Just grab your thunder buddy, and sing these magic words:/Fuck you thunder, you can suck my dick;/You can't get me thunder 'cause you're just God's farts! *fart noise*

Which actually becomes a plot point by the end of the movie: Ted claims he's the reason that John can't grow up, and uses this as an example ("He'll never be scared of thunder again!"). Sure enough, when Ted dies, there's a thunderstorm outside and John doesn't even flinch.

Byron: Frightened of thunder, fearful of the dark, and yet you have written a tale that sent my blood into icy creeps.

Literature

Exploited in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where Cao Cao assesses Liu Bei and says that the two of them are the only true heroes; Liu Bei is immediately mortified by the possibility that Cao Cao might see him as a rival and, thus, someone who the shrewd and powerful Cao Cao will eventually have to kill. Thankfully for him, a bolt of lightning happens to strike at this time, and Liu Bei pretends to cower in fear...thus causing Cao Cao to dismiss him as coward. Cao Cao would eventually regret this; Liu Bei walked off unscathed, and would later become the ruler of one of the rival kingdoms to oppose Cao Cao.

In the Swallows and Amazons books by Arthur Ransome, Peggy is afraid of thunder, much to the scorn of her sister Captain Nancy (who isn't afraid of anything). This comes to a head in Missee Lee, where the girls are in a ship under attack by Chinese pirates with cannon, and Nancy comforts Peggy: "That's guns, not thunder!"

James Joyce had a fear of thunder and lightning, which he bestowed upon Stephen Dedalus, who serves a Joyce's Author Avatar in and Ulysses. Dedalus, even though he is an atheist, sees thunderstorms as a manifestation of God's power, and believes that thunder is God's punishment against him for failing to meet the last wishes of his dead mother.

The official iOS app of the Warrior Cats series claims that Hollyleaf has this - justified, since Ashfur had attempted to murder her and her littermates during a thunderstorm that started a fire.

In Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story "The Only Game In Town", the Mongols refuse to be afraid of their technological gadgets because the only thing a Mongol should fear is thunder.

Alfie from Dear Hound is a puppy who hates thunder. He promised not to chase any animals in exchange for his cat friend snuggling with him during storms. When he gets lost in the woods, he convinces a pair of foxes to help him due to his fear of thunder.

Live Action Television

Game of Thrones: Hodor's massive panic attack during a storm almost gets Bran and Rickon discovered by wildlings.

M*A*S*H: in the episode "C*A*V*E", Margaret comforts Hawkeye concerning his claustrophobia by telling him that she has a fear of loud noises, such as the nearby Chinese artillery strikes. She ends up confronting it when the two have to operate on a soldier right in the middle of the shelled area.

All My Children. Erica Kane is afraid of thunderstorms. This is initially explained by her having seen a man get struck by lightning and killed right in front of her. Later, the explanation for her fear becomes even darker—there was a thunderstorm the night of her 14th birthday party, when she was raped by a friend of her father's.

Chie from Persona 4 is scared of thunder. Yu can either tease her, or comfort her.

In a somewhat ironic twist, Big Bad Colonel Volgin of Metal Gear Solid 3 game is afraid of storms. Although this is directly passed on via radio communication from one character to another, there are other subtle hints, such as how Volgin retreats to his quarters during storms and chants a Japanese charm against lighting strikes when forced to be outside while it's raining. This is ironic because Volgin himself has control over electricity, uses it as his primary weapon, and one of his nicknames is "Thunderbolt."

Considering he has giant scars all over his body where his electricity burned/ripped his skin, he obviously isn't immune to it.

Naturally, he is killed at the end of the game by a direct hit from a lightning bolt when he decides not to say his little anti-lightning mantra for once. Standing knee-deep in exposed electrical cables on top of a giant tank probably didn't help.

Hell, he doesn't just forget to say his little mantra, he even MOCKS the thunder itself by declaring "Who's afraid of a little thunder?!"

Oh, and his subordinate/boyfriend's last name is either a clever way to reinforce said subordinate's resemblance to Raiden or a really jerk-ass bit of bilingual humor. Anyone who disagrees with the previous designation is clearly lying.

Rikku in Final Fantasy X suffers this, due to a traumatic childhood experience of a mis-aimed attempt to protect her from a sea monster using lightning magic. She even screams out in fear when she's hit with a Thunder spell in combat. At one point, the party must travel through the Thunder Plains, where lighting is always shooting down, and never stops. Ever. Most people in Real Life would find it perfectly rational to be afraid of walking through a place where one must constantly dodge lightning bolts by jumping out of the way every few seconds. The other party members, meanwhile, consider Rikku's reaction to be well over-the-top. note But then again, lightning in the real world is often lethal, whereas getting struck by lightning in this game (outside of battle) doesn't even take off any HP. By the time of Final Fantasy X-2, she has cured her phobia through the fairly simple method of camping for a week in the Thunder Plains. In battle, when casting Thunder spells, she'll occasionally quip "Astraphobic? Not me!".

Shion in Xenosaga is traumatized by lightning because her fiancé and parents were both killed during thunderstorms. This also appeared in the anime adaptation of the game.

Played straight in Dynasty Warriors 4 in one of the Shu Endings. Liu Bei is eating with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei when a bolt of lightning strikes, causing Liu Bei to dive under the table in panic while Guan Yu and Zhang Fei Watch.

Skilled Samurai Sakura Shinguji in Sakura Wars is in fact deathly scared of lightning. Motoko's phobia may be a reference to, or parody of, this.

Web Comics

Tess Keene, mother of PreTeena, manifests this fear. While her daughter and her friends would happily go out to play in a thunderstorm and will sit discussing the cool noise and light show, Tess hides under the kitchen table.

Western Animation

An episode of Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! revealed that both the villain and Scooby have lightning issues. Phibes apparently gets so upset that his prosthetic laser gun is fired off when he so much as hears the word "lightning". His plot of the episode revolves around creating a never-ending thunderstorm, thus leaving the severely astraphobic Scooby as a paranoid wreck. Since the lightning bolts are apparently violent and can strike anything, Scooby actually has justification for this. Shaggy drags him along to stop the storm anyway.

In both an original storybook and an episode based on it, Franklin Turtle was afraid of thunderstorms. He was worried that his friends would make fun of him, since in most other matters he was normally pretty courageous, but they turned out to be quite understanding.

Defied on Dexter's Laboratory, while laying in his bed during a thunderstorm, Dexter dismisses his initial fear by reminding himself of the science behind lightning.

Dudley from Tuff Puppy is afraid of thunder. He got over it the same episode that it was introduced.

In The Venture Bros., Dean contemplates living with Dr. Orpheus, fantasizing that he's comforting Triana when she's scared of a storm.

Martha and Skits from Martha Speaks are both afraid of thunderstorms. Martha deals with it better than Skits does.

Jasper the wasp on The Hive; his friends and family help him to get over it by singing a song.

In ˇMucha Lucha!, Pulgita is afraid of thunderstorms; her brother The Flea helps her by telling a scary story, and at the end she no longer fears them.

In King of the Hill, the Hill's dog Ladybird develops a fear of thunder and bites Hank, and the rest of the episode deals with the repercussions and discussions about medicating her (which fails) or having her put down before she attacks someone else, at the end of the episode Hank's ready to decide when he learns that Ladybird's gone deaf.

The Steven Universe episode "When It Rains" revolves around one of the Gems mistaking a thunderstorm for the apocalyptic event of the Cluster emerging from the Earth's core.

Peridot: IT'S HAPPENING!

In what appears to be a callback, Tails in Sonic Boom displays a comical fear of lightning storms, often jumping into Sonic's arms and shaking when one occurs.

Real Life

John Adams had one of these, making his successful argument in the debate for American independence (which took place during an intense thunderstorm) an even biggerCrowning Moment of Awesome.

The Russian composer Tchaikovsky would hide under his bed during thunderstorms. Modern psychologists theorize that he was Brontophobic.

Likely anybody raised in an area without thunderstorms and several people raised in areas with frequent thunderstorms, more likely if they've been struck by lightning.

Thunder can sometimes sound a little like artillery, and is therefore likely to bring back unpleasant memories if you've ever been on the receiving end of it.

According to Roman historians Tacitus and Seutonius, the Julii family had considered thunder to be their own personal curse, as every time they were caught in a thunderstorm away from home in Rome something awful was going to happen.

This likely stems from Julius Caesar's stint as Pontifex Maximus, the most powerful priest in Rome, and receiving auguries about such things happened frequently.

Augustus had a particularly strong fear of thunder because a slave was once struck by lightning right in front of him while traveling. Emperors are recorded as doing any number of things to avert the danger: wearing a bit of sealskin, wearing a laurel wreath, and going underground.

Romans, as a whole, had lots of beliefs and superstitions related to gods of nature. I.e.: Thunder and lighting were associated with Jupiter, the Father of the Gods, and being on the bad side of a pissed off Jupiter was something you really did not want.

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